


Saving Grace

by IAmStoryteller



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman Incorporated (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), Batman and Robin Eternal (Comics), Batwoman (Comic), Detective Comics (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 12:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15171281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmStoryteller/pseuds/IAmStoryteller
Summary: Jason’s hand trembled slightly, only slightly, as he traced the words on the paper.  He had long since memorized how his soulmate wrote and now he knew who it was.  Jason did not know what to do.





	Saving Grace

**Author's Note:**

> Who else needs some sappy shit right now? I sure do!
> 
> Can be set in any verse you want, this was just something fun I wrote

Soulmates were nonsense. It was the only thing that his father actually bothered teaching him. His mother Catherine always told Jason, after Willis left for a job or for the bar, that Willis was just mad because his soulmate left him and it hurt. Soulmates were important. Even if you never came face to face with your soulmate, you would have, at least, one person in the world will love you. Catherine would hug Jason and send him off to bed.

Jason was five when writing in red marker appeared on his feet. He was a good reader—the downstairs neighbor was a teacher at one of the Park Row schools and even though, Jason was not enrolled in school for reasons, the man taught Jason how to read and write some. Thankfully, Willis was not home when he discovered the writing on his feet.

In neat, controlled letters, the note said simply, _**“I hope you are doing okay, today.”**_

Jason debated whether or not to write something back. He knew that if his father caught him, Jason would be in a load of trouble. Nonetheless, he found a black pen and wrote in big, blocky letters (as five year olds tended to do).

_**“I’m ok.”** _

_**“That’s good. I hope you have a good night/day!”**_ His soulmate drew a small smiley face afterwards.

_**“You too.”** _

The next day, the words were gone but the smiley face was still on his foot. It was reminder to Jason that someone wanted him to have a good day. Good days were on short supply in his life, after all. He could not always write back. And he was thankful that the person was more concerned with asking about his well-being or what colors did he like better. Sometimes, his soulmate wrote whole paragraphs on his legs about her day (he was pretty sure that it was a girl because there were a lot of smiley faces, hippie peace symbols and I’s dotted with hearts). It was never anything too personal.

The only one he shared it with was his mother, even in her state of mind, was happy that Jason’s soulmate was writing to him.

When Willis split and Catherine died, it was only Jason’s willpower to live that he survived. Jason managed on his own when his parents were unreliable, so it was not much different. He did have to squat in unused apartments in Park Row and steal things to pawn. He needed to eat. He considered once asking his soulmate for help, but figured that was a bad idea.

Still, he didn’t have any writing instruments while on the streets and he could not write back any messages to his soulmate. His soulmate was undeterred by his lack of response. Sometimes, the kind words were the only thing that kept Jason wanting to live.

_**“I hope that you are safe. If not, just know that you are definitely stronger than you think you are.”** _

_**“Sometimes, I think I’m bothering you. I’m sorry.”** _

He was eleven years old when he tried to steal the Batmobile’s hubcaps. Bruce took him and gave him a home. It was strange when he learned that Batman was Bruce Wayne, the useless playboy billionaire. It was a good cover. Alfred was the best. He ate well at the Manor. 

Dick, who at first was wary and probably jealous, grew to love Jason as his little brother. Dick was kind of annoying. Becoming Robin was a freeing moment for him. It gave him a purpose.

“Little Wing, you got some pen mark on your face,” said Dick. Dick was showing him some techniques to make falling easier on his body. 

Jason merely responded, “She’s probably in class or something and not paying attention to what she’s doing, as usual.” Dick looked startled.

“Wait, you talk to your soulmate,” asked Dick. 

Jason shrugged. “We talk sometimes, more now that Alfred got me markers. I don’t know who it is and she doesn’t know who I am.”

Dick grinned. “That’s nice. My soulmate is currently ignoring me. Babs can keep a grudge.”

“Wait, Batgirl is your soulmate? Aren’t you dating Starfire,” asked Jason. He didn’t understand how Dick could actually managed that one. Dick smiled ruefully.

“You will understand when you’re older.”

Jason doubted it.

Alfred and Bruce knew that Jason talked to his soulmate. Of course, he got a lecture about the secret identities and security and such, but he knew better. They didn’t talk in details but in generalizations. 

_**“My adoptive big brother is a nerd.”**_ He wrote that the day after Dick announced that he was alright with Jason taking the mantel of Robin and dubbed Jason ‘Little Wing.’

_**“Pops grounded me.”**_ It was easier to refer to Bruce as Pops. He kind of explained the whole situation, so she knew that Pops was his adoptive father.

Sometimes when his anger started to get the better of him, he did not write to his soulmate in fear of lashing out at person that never did anything but send him nice and kind words. In his silences, his soulmate filled with random book quotes (they both loved fantasy novels), gushed about superheroes, and talked about college. It almost startled him. He had forgotten that his soulmate was at least five years older than him.

Sometimes his life got the better of him and he didn’t have time to worry about a person that could be thousands of miles away, in another place, who didn’t have a spot for him in her life.

Then he died.

Then he came back to life.

He recalled little during his Blank period under the guidance of Talia al Ghul. Talia goaded him needlessly about everything, about Bruce, about the new Robin, about his soulmate. 

_**“I miss you.”**_ Those words were always on his wrist, in different colors on different days. He did not remember much, but he knew better than to respond.

Once he became Red Hood and after all the battles with his ‘family,’ Jason’s life started to balance out. Bruce and he came to an understanding. Jason could do what Batman couldn’t. Bruce wouldn’t judge or lecture and Jason would make sure that Bruce didn’t know that much. His friendship with the Outlaws helped, too.

His soulmate still wrote to him, even though he no longer responded at all.

When she stopped writing suddenly, Jason was startled when he woke up and there was nothing on his skin. He wondered if she felt this way when he didn’t respond to her notes. He tore apart the kitchen in his safe house looking for a marker, waking up Roy and Kory in the process. He wrote on his arm for the first time in six years.

_**“Are you okay? Are you safe?”** _

“Jaybird, what’s the matter? You look like you just lost your best friend,” said Roy, half-asleep. It was almost like he did. Jason did not realize how much he depended on the words of a stranger (yet not a stranger).

There was no response for two days. Then, in a handwriting that he did not recognize and so obviously a man’s handwriting, it had Jason’s stomach clenched in jealously for a minute when he realized that it was probably her father or brother or uncle.

_**“She’s in the hospital. She was attacked. I’m sorry.”** _

Anger boiled in Jason’s veins. It sucked that he had no idea who or where and could do nothing about it. He was in a bad mood for a while, until Kory came home with markers from the dollar store.

Kory smiled at him. “Write her nice things, Jason.”

_**“I’m sorry I haven’t written back in a long time. I’ve been dealing with a lot of shit. I was reading your notes though. I appreciated them. I wish I could do something.”**_ Jason even drew her pictures of cats (an artist he was not, but it was the thought that counts). Kory and Roy teased him endlessly about his soulmate and also questioned him about who she was and such. When Jason told them that they had never met, Roy and Kory were astounded.

About a month later, Jason woke up after a long night chasing after his pain in the ass little brothers Damian and Tim (and making sure that they didn’t kill themselves). There was a note on his left arm.

_**“Hi. I’m okay now. Well, not so much okay, but I’m dealing with it. I did something super stupid. I’m sorry I worried you. Thanks for the notes. My uncle told me that you wrote while I was in a coma.”** _

Jason wrote back. _**“Everyone does something stupid. It was what made me…not write to you in six years.”**_

_**“I did miss you.”** _

_**“I know. I saw that message. You were the only one that told me that they missed me. Thank you.”** _

_**“Oh, darling, how you wish you could see me blush!”** _

_**“You still are a fucking weirdo.”** _

_**“And proud of it, nerd.”** _

When he lost Damian (God damn, Jason didn’t know how much he actually loved the little Demon Spawn until the kid was gone and there was so much anger) and shortly after, he lost Dick (which hurt too much to actually think about), the only escape was writing on his arm. It seemed that she understood. She lost people important to her recently, as well. Considering the influx of super-villain attacks, it was not improbable.

Hanging out with Tim also helped. He and Red Robin made a pretty good team. 

“You have a pink heart on your face, Jason,” said Tim, one morning at Jason’s safe house. They were eating breakfast. Jason cursed.

“She thinks she’s being funny,” said Jason, scowling. He found a red marker and wrote on his arm.

_**“My little brother is right here and stop drawing hearts on my face!”** _

_**“No! ^_^”** _

Tim just stared at him. “You have a soulmate?”

Jason gave him a look. “Like you didn’t know, it’s in Bruce’s files on me. And no, I don’t know who it is.”

Tim shrugged. “At least you talk to your soulmate. Mine writes her shopping list on her arm and I wind up buying all that stuff and I don’t even like it. Then again, I’m sure he or she doesn’t care for the equations and algorithms I write on myself.” 

“Red, you have got problems,” said Jason, flicking a Cheerio at Tim’s head.

After the whole getting Damian back to life, Bruce losing his memories, finding out that Dick was alive and the big bad evil Mother fiasco, Jason’s life fell in line more or less. He had a huge family of crime-fighting vigilantes. Cassandra, Stephanie and Harper were like sisters he always had wanted and he was quite protective of them. Bruce was trying to make up for being a manipulative bastard. 

Alfred wanted him home every Sunday for dinner.

With Batwoman and Batman working together to train the girls and Cullen Row, now buddies with Midnighter, Jason found that he didn’t mind much that everyone was around. It also meant that Kate and Bruce’s cousin Bette was around more and more too. Bette was not too bad. He called her ‘Princess’ and she called him ‘Jaybird’ and sometimes they argued, but she was okay. He spent more time with Tim and Damian as a result. With Dick still off with Spyral for some god-awful reason, Jason was trying to be a good big brother.

One day, shortly after his twenty-first birthday, Jason walked into the kitchen to find Bette and Alfred reviewing plans for Damian’s eleventh birthday party. He went to the fridge to get some juice when something caught his eye.

It was a shopping list for Damian’s birthday party.

Jason’s hand trembled slightly, only slightly, as he traced the words on the paper. He had long since memorized how his soulmate wrote and now he knew who it was. Jason did not know what to do.

Should he say something? Should he not? His mind was clicking everything he knew about Bette Kane and everything he knew about his soulmate into place. Jason was going to have a panic attack. He knew it.

“Hey, Jason, do you think that Damian would like to have a petting zoo or a bounce house,” asked Bette. She went up to him. “Earth to Jason, you, like, okay?” 

“A bounce house,” replied Jason, before he fled the kitchen.

He went to the Cave. He needed advice. Who the hell could he talk to? The only person that he would talk to about this was…his soulmate, but that was impossible.

“Jason, are you alright,” asked Bette. She came down the stairs. “You kind of freaked Alfred out. You look pale. Are you having a panic attack?” When she reached for him, Jason unconsciously pulled away. She looked confused. He pulled out his marker from his pocket and on impulse, he wrote “Hi” on the back of his other hand.

Bette lifted her hand to find the same word on her hand.

Jason waited for her reaction.

Suddenly, he was being hugged tightly by Bette. Jason instantly hugged her back. It was the first time in a long time that he hugged someone (Kory, Dick and Bruce aside). “I told myself if I ever met the person at the other end, I would hug him. I’m glad it’s you, Jason.”

“How does this work now,” asked Jason, quietly.

Bette shrugged. “I would like to still write to you, because I’m used to it. But maybe we could start off slow, like maybe coffee and cookies tomorrow? I know a place.”

Jason found his voice. “Sounds good.” She took his marker.

_**“Nice to finally meet you for real, Jason.”** _

_**“Nice to meet you for real, too, Bette.”** _


End file.
